ABSTRACT
The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (UNCHE) held in 1972 is widely recognized as a founding moment for global environmental politics. Encouraging the creation of national environmental ministries and the participation of a broader range of actors in environmental policymaking, it spurred the establishment of networks of collaboration and international organizations that still play a central role today. Many of the core foci of UNCHE, including a focus on combining economic and development priorities with environmental concerns, still pervade global environmental politics to this day. A better understanding of UNCHE is useful to situate the context of adoption and parameters of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to reveal some of the roots of global environmental cooperation.
